Yes, Penny Dreadful the television series mishmashes them all into the proverbial blender here in the storyline we’re about to quickly discuss. I already mentioned the series draws on tales involving Van Helsing and Victor Frankenstein, but I chose to leave out until now Frankenstein’s monster, Dorian Gray, Mina Harker and even vampires themselves from this conversation. It’s in fact from one of these tales which references a vampire that Bram Stoker got the idea to write Dracula (also mentioned in the Extras section below). The show’s title refers to Penny Dreadfuls, which were a British fiction publication in the late 1800s with sensational and horror subject matter. The series also stars Reeve Carney ( Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark), Rory Kinnear ( Skyfall), Billie Piper ( Doctor Who, Secret Diary of a Call Girl), Danny Sapani ( The Bill) and Harry Treadaway ( The Lone Ranger). The show undoubtedly stars the mischievous Eva Green as well as Josh Hartnett ( Black Hawk Down), who recently returned from taking a break from acting, and Timothy Dalton ( The Living Daylights). Penny Dreadful was both conceived and written by three-time Oscar nominee John Logan (Skyfall, Hugo, Gladiator) with producing support from Sam Mendes ( American Beauty, Skyfall). That’s pretty cool, huh? That knowledge alone, not the critical acclaim or prospect of another wild romp with Eva Green, painted me with curiosity and is ultimately responsible for me wanting to check out this Showtime series. How about you at least try these two on for size? Think about the implications of mixing Victor Frankenstein and even Van Helsing with original characters in the eery, dark world of Penny Dreadful. If you haven’t seen the show yet, then I’m sure you’re wondering what famous characters I must be referring to. Right off the bat, the unique thing to me here is that Penny Dreadful is a drama that brilliantly weaves together classic horror origin stories and twists them into something so frighteningly good as it reinvents literature’s most famous characters. The series stars the wildly popular Eva Green, famous for her sexy wardrobe or lack of in most recent roles such as 300: Rise of an Empire and Sin City: A Dame To Kill For. It’s a series that NPR calls “scary, seductive, surprising and smart” and Variety claims that Penny Dreadful is “solidly entertaining, well casted and oozing with atmosphere.” Although I did not need them to make my mind up for me those two critiques alone are encouraging enough to make me want to watch this, but if you need more reasons, try this one on for size. I’m just overjoyed that I finally now have the chance to watch and hopefully enjoy all eight episodes in glorious 1080p on my favorite format. Life’s not always rainbows and puppies, but I digress. I was able to check out the first episode of Penny Dreadful utilizing Showtime On Demand this summer, but due to my hectic lifestyle and work schedule I was never able to follow up on the rest of the series even though I really wanted to. Penny Dreadful The Complete First Season is a title that I’m very excited to have received this week to review on Blu-ray.
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